The local administration of the northern oil rich city of Kirkuk tasks all government al offices to review safety procedures immediately following the fire in southern Iraq hospital lefts tens of victims.
Kirkuk administration has circulated an executive order to all state offices end of last week “to check the safety of their buildings in order to avoid fire accidents.”
Government offices are tasked to cooperate with civil defense to review safety procedures and report it to the administration of Kirkuk.
Qais Abdul-Razaq, spokesperson of Kirkuk civil defense, said civil defense has a plan for annual checkup of safety for all buildings and each six months for government offices .
“In case there is any problem, we inform that office and they have to fix it,” Abdul-Razaq said.
In case there is any problem, we inform that office and they have to fix it
“All hospitals were checked. Shifa hospital for Corona treatment is one of the hospitals which has shortages and we passed them an18-point notice and Kirkuk administration is informed as well.”
The tight safety procedures follow the fire accident of al-Hussein hospital for Covid-19 treatment in Nasiriya on July 12th where 60 people died, 21 bodies unidentified yet, and 50 were burnt.
The independent high commission for human rights in Iraq IHCHR argues that over 90 people were killed in DhiQar hospital fire.
Over 520 cases of fire have been registered in the last six months including fire erupted in agricultural farms ahead of its harvest.
“Safety of government services in Kirkuk are average yet the risk is for some offices whose electricity network is old which might cause spark and fire,” Kirkuk firefighters’ spokesperson said.
Kirkuk firefighters ordered all government offices to maintain an effective fire extinguisher system or bottles, a basic service to fight fire in baking summer.
Kirkuk, located 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, is home to about 1.2 million Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs, according to Kurdistan Regional Government KRG figures in 2018. It’s the center of the disputed territories where Iraqi security forces have taken control in October 2017 following the declaration of defeat of ISIS by Iraqi government.
Currently, Kirkuk is under control of Baghdad with local police downtown while Iraqi army and pro-Shiite militia Popular Mobilization Forces PMF known as Hashid aal-Sha’abi deployed at the outskirts.
Kirkukis blame the government for unemployment, poverty, and poor services of water and power supply while the five oil wells of Kirkuk monthly generate hundreds of million dollars for national revenue.
